US Patent Issued to Hyundai Motor Company;, Kia on March 31 for "Apparatus and method for controlling travel mode of four-wheel drive vehicle" (South Korean Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,589,748, issued on March 31, was assigned to Hyundai Motor Co.; (Seoul, South Korea) and Kia Corp. (Seoul, South Korea).

"Apparatus and method for controlling travel mode of four-wheel drive vehicle" was invented by Dong Hun Kang (Hwaseong-si, South Korea).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An apparatus for controlling a travel mode of a four-wheel drive vehicle, the apparatus includes a heat generation amount calculation unit configured to determine a heat loss amount of a torque converter, a rough terrain travel start determination unit configured to determine, whether to start travel on a road having rough terrain conditions, a first trav...